Mercedes-Benz Announces First All-Electric Big Rig

Mercedes-Benz has announced the first fully electric big rig, the Urban eTruck. It's capable of carrying 29 tons of cargo. The trucks will have a maximum range of around 124 miles per charge.Daimler is planning to deploy these trucks in urban areas, where they could reduce the truck-driven noise and air pollution in modern cities.

In the video below, Daimler shows off the eTruck on a closed road. Notice how you can barely hear a thing.

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"Two key factors have come together," Wolfgang Bernhardt, head of Daimler Trucks & Buses, said in a press conference announcing the eTruck. "The technology has made great progress and the market is emerging. Great improvements are being made in batteries. Not enough for long-distance, but for distribution."

Daimler's Fuso Canter E-cell has been in testing for years. The company has tested the E-cell in civic duty, loaning them out to various cities in Portugal for waste management and forest maintenance. At the time, Daimler said "preliminary analysis points to cost savings of about 1,000 euro per 10,000 km." Although Daimler has ordered another round of testing for the E-cell, that shouldn't effect the eTruck—its widespread release is planned for sometime in the next decade.

The Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck

Still, even getting a working prototype up and running is an accomplishment, and one that comes on the heels of Tesla announcing they were launching a similar project. Trucking has become one of the surprise markets for disruption as of late, with electric and self-driving companies making a strong push to change the business.